National SEO Services for Lawyers

National SEO Services for Lawyers

Is your law firm licensed to practice across the country? If so, then you’re going to want to consider a national SEO strategy.

With 96% of people using search engines to find legal advice, it’s important to get your website seen by search engines and ranked highly.

Many law firms have seen success by using local SEO as a marketing tactic. That local success can be leveraged to create an SEO presence nationally.

Here’s what you need to know to get your website ranked highly across the country.

Local SEO vs. National SEO

There are a number of differences between a local SEO and a nationwide search strategy.

For the most part, there are a lot of similarities between the two as far as the principles of SEO goes. Yet, there are several key differences.

With local SEO, you’re targeting keywords that are specific to your location. There’s also a focus on building local listings and backlinks from local websites.

If you were a bankruptcy attorney in Orlando, Florida, people would probably try to find your services by searching “bankruptcy lawyer Orlando.”

A national campaign primarily focuses on broad search terms that are more competitive.

A national campaign can take a while to see results, and many law firms approach this by maintaining their local SEO success and slowly expanding their SEO strategy nationally.

Keyword Discovery is the Key to Successful SEO

With a nationwide SEO strategy, the keywords you target will determine whether or not your campaign is successful.

Knowing that people may search locally or use very general search terms to find your services, how can you position your law firm to be found?

It will take research. Just like an important case where you obtain the facts in the discovery phase, keyword research is where you discover how people search for your services. It’s also the time when you find out the keywords your competitors are trying to rank for.

Ideally, you want to find niche keywords that don’t have that much competition and still are used by potential clients. You want to find the perfect combination of moderate volume and low competition.

Search terms that are too broad can be very difficult to rank for.

For example, a person could be trying to find an attorney who specializes in sexual harassment or employment discrimination. They’re likely to do a general search like “find a lawyer.” That term is too broad.

Start by making a list of how you help your clients. Maybe there’s a certain type of client or case you love to work with. Write that down as well.

You’ll then want to use a tool like this keyword planner that will show you what people are searching for.

Just enter the phrases from your list, and this tool will give you a list of similar search terms, how often they’re searched, and how competitive they are.

Choose your cornerstone keyword from that list. Then, you’ll choose other keywords as offshoots of the cornerstone keyword.

What Can National SEO Services Do for your Firm?

Now that you have your keywords, what do you do with them? You have two options: either develop your entire SEO strategy and execute it yourself or hire a company to do that for you.

There’s nothing wrong with keeping SEO in-house. However, you may be missing out on opportunities to improve your national search results.

Attorneys are notorious for working long hours. It’s been reported that attorneys average over 60 hours a week.

That probably means that your SEO efforts will be inconsistent because you don’t have the time to do the necessary work.

SEO isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it method of marketing. It takes constant and consistent work. Your social media and blogs will need to be updated at least twice a week.

Plus, SEO is constantly changing. Do you have the time to stay on top of trends?

Here’s what a company that specializes in national SEO can do for your law firm.

Take Your Keywords and Create a Strategy

An SEO services company will take your keywords and get to know your business. They want to understand what your challenges are, how clients are finding you and look for other opportunities.

They might find other keywords that you can rank for as well. They’ll build a comprehensive plan that will outline the blog posts that will support those keywords and the backlinks that will be used to add authority to your site.

Take Care of Your Content

Successful SEO depends on content. The best SEO companies will understand the psychology of the challenges your clients face. Then content will be tailored specifically to your ideal clients.

Success is Results-Based

SEO is a results-based business. Companies understand that if they can’t deliver results for their clients, they won’t be in business for long.

The company that you decide to work with will have reporting methods so you can track results. They will also rise above expectations to make sure you get the results you’re seeking.

How to Hire the Right SEO Company

The success of your law firm will come down to hiring the right SEO company.

In the SEO industry, there are companies that use unscrupulous tactics to deliver results. These tactics look great on the surface, but they often violate the terms and conditions of search engines. Your website could be penalized or removed from search results.

To ensure that doesn’t happen to you, you can ask a few questions of prospective SEO companies that will help separate the pretenders from the contenders.

How do you see your SEO services helping my law firm?

What SEO strategies do you normally use with clients?

How long will it take to see results?

Can I see a list of referrals or case studies?

By asking these questions, you’ll be able to tell who the real SEO companies are.

Build Your Business with National SEO

If you’re ready to take your legal services national, it’s time to build a national SEO strategy. It is possible to do while you’re maintaining local SEO.